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Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd said on Monday that its computers had been hacked into, with one newspaper saying the target was Japan's biggest defence contractor's factories for submarines, missiles and nuclear power plant components. "There is no possibility of any leakage of defense-related information at this point," a spokesman for the Japanese conglomerate said.

According to the Japanese newspaper, information was stolen from the company’s computers in the attack. Mitsubishi Heavy has confirmed the attack, but said it is still investigating whether there were any information leaks.The company said about 80 virus-infected computers were found at the company’s headquarters in Tokyo as well as manufacturing and R&D sites including Kobe Shipyard & Machinery Works, Nagasaki Shipyard & Machinery Works and Nagoya Guidance & Propulsion System Works.

Kobe Shipyard currently builds submarines and makes components to build nuclear power stations, while the Nagasaki Shipyard makes escort ships. The Nagoya plant makes guided missiles and rocket engines, the paper said citing unnamed sources.At least eight different kinds of computer virus including Trojan horse, which steals key information from infected computer hardware, were found at Mitsubishi Heavy's main office or production sites, the Yomiuri said.It is the country's biggest defense contractor, winning 215 deals worth 260 billion yen ($3.4 billion) from Japan's Ministry of Defense in the year to last March, or nearly a quarter of the ministry's spending that year.